I found out that Scott Wilson was in this one and had to give it a try. This is a Korean film, and since this site appears to be popular in Korea, I hope that they enjoy this review. This isn’t a horror film by today’s standards, but it is a monster movie, so that counts partially at the very least. Think of this more as like Jurassic Park, which isn’t really horror, but it can be frightening for some.
As I mentioned, Scott Wilson is in this, but only for a few minutes in the very beginning. He is an American military pathologist and he orders his assistant to dump 200 bottles of formaldehyde down a drain that leads to the Han River. That’s about it for Scott. As you can imagine, that leads to the monster in the film. Most of the film deals with a family and a few other characters. The grandfather is Hee-bong who runs this like snack bar by the Han River with his son Park Gang-du. Park Gang-du has a daughter named Hyun-seo. His sister is Nam-joo who competes for Korea in archery but can never finish first. His brother is Nam-il who is this college graduate who hasn’t done much with his life other than protest. There are also a father and son or an older brother and younger brother. I think they are brothers per wikipedia. The older one Se-jin and the younger one is Se-joo.
Early on the monster attacks and get Hyun-seo. She is held captive in the sewers throughout most of the film. She is later joined by Se-joo after him and Se-jin are captured, but Se-jin died during the attack. The rest of the family is taken into quarantine by the government. They escape at one point and become fugitives. Hee-bong gets killed by the monster. Park Gang-du is recaptured and tested upon by the government. Nam-joo has her own incidents with the monster while Nam-il gets information and traces Hyun-seo’s phone call. Anyway, this all culminates with the government unleashing Agent Yellow at the urging of America. It does have a sad ending, which I won’t ruin.
All in all, this was a really good movie. I didn’t want to watch a 2-hour film, but I am glad that I did. It’s on TubiTV for free with a few ads every 20 minutes or so. It was fine. I was really impressed. This felt like something Speilberg would have made. The music was good, the shots and acting were good. The story arc made sense. I would absolutely watch this one again. I will reiterate, the ending may make you sad and happy at the same time.
Rating: 7.3 I truly enjoyed this one, and am pleasantly surprised. Joon-ho Bong was the director and did an absolutely wonderful job.
All the pictures used in this blog are for review purposes. They are the property of:
- Showbox Entertainment (presents)
- Chungeorahm Film (production)
- Boston Investments (in association with)
- CJ E&M Film Financing & Investment Entertainment & Comics
- CJ E&M Pictures
- CJ Venture Investment (in association with)
- Cowell Investment Capital Co. (in association with)
- Happinet (in association with)
- IMM Venture Capital (in association with)
- Knowledge & Creation Ventures (in association with)
- M-Venture Investment (in association with)
- OCN (in association with)
- Sego Entertainment (in association with)
- Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS) (in association with)
- Tube Pictures (in association with)
Please go find a copy and support the creators.
I am doing a GoFundMe to help pay for the costs to keep 9deuce.com up and running. I don’t make any money off of the site. I do it because I love it, but it is expensive at times, and I had to recently renew for 3 years. So I am asking any of my readers to consider donating if they have the extra funds. If you don’t, I get it. It would mean a lot to me.
https://www.gofundme.com/keep-9deucecom-alive
